North Carolina

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 487.

Like Georgia, the state of North Carolina generates more Ph.D. graduates (about 1,355 in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics) than the biotech job market is likely to support.

According to Robert A. Lindberg, Ph.D., RAC, Director Business Acceleration and Technology Out-licensing Network (BATON), North Carolina Biotechnology Center, about 30% of these graduates pursue academic careers while the remaining 70% choose the life sciences or biotech industry.

“For the latter group, there is the added complication of competing with M.D/Ph.D. graduates for jobs in the life sciences industry,” says Dr. Lindberg.

He also points out that the Southeast is not the only part of the country experiencing a Brain Drain-the Midwest is going through the same thing. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Kentucky, he left to find employment elsewhere.

However, he knows from personal experience that it is possible to find employment in the Southeast's burgeoning biotech industry and these days, he spends part of his time developing ways to help Ph.D.'s in North Carolina transition smoothly into biotech industry jobs.

According to the North Carolina Community College System BioNetwork, the biotechnology industry in the state is growing 10-15% per year and, at this rate, should create 125,000 jobs by 2025 with revenues approaching $24 billion.

Florida
Florida is hoping to fuel the need for graduates through efforts to boost the number of life sciences and biotech companies in the state. In recent years, the Florida Legislature set up the Innovation Incentive Fund in an effort to recruit more biotech companies to the area and diversify the state's economy.

According to Enterprise Florida, this initiative would help the state's economy by creating over 300 new jobs paying a salary of at least $62,000.

Doug Saenz, Business Outreach Manager for Workforce Alliance in Palm Beach County, explained that as a result of this initiative, several internationally recognized institutions have received funds to build institutes in the state including the Scripps Research Institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the Stanford Research Institute, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, the Max Planck Society in Germany and the Oregon Health & Science University.

Florida universities have also received financial help to support the commercialization of research being done in the public universities.

Florida Atlantic University will soon house the Florida Institute for Commercialization of Public Research; and the University of Miami Institute of Human Genomics recently received $80 million from the Innovation Incentive Fund.

Kenneth Chung, a recent Florida graduate, is a good example of this. Kenneth was torn between returning west (where he grew up) and remaining in the southeast (where he attended graduate school).

“I grew up near Silicon Valley and people often ask me why I left California for a small Southeastern city like Gainesville. It is because the University of Florida has a strong biomaterials program, which is what I was interested in studying.”

Upon completion of his Master's degree, Kenneth discovered that several local biotech companies were interested in commercializing his research and soon found himself involved in a small startup company called SharkletTM Technologies, LLC.

“The University of Florida has a very streamlined research commercialization process,” he said. “One advantage for startups located in the Southeast is that there is a deep connection with the local academic scene.”

Kenneth is now Director of Research & Development and Manufacturing at Sharklet. The company is still closely connected to the University of Florida and continues to collaborate with university researchers.